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The spice called saffron is made from the crocus flower. |
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The most expensive spice, saffron, consists of dried stigmas of a crocus.
| Saffron Crocus |
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 | | The red things in the picture are stigmas. | | Scientific classification |
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| Kingdom: | Plantae
| | Division: | Magnoliophyta
| | Class: | Liliopsida
| | Order: | Asparagales
| | Family: | Iridaceae
| | Genus: | Crocus
| | Species: | C. sativus
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| | Binomial name |
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| Crocus sativus |
Saffron is a spice that comes from the flower of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. The flower has three stigmas, which are the distal ends of the plant's carpels. Together with its style, the stalk connecting the stigmas to the rest of the plant, these components are often dried and used in cooking as a seasoning and colouring agent. Saffron, which has for decades been the world's most expensive spice by weight, is native to Southwest Asia, but was first cultivated in the vicinity of Greece.
Saffron is characterised by a bitter taste and a hay-like fragrance. It also contains a carotenoid dye, crocin, that gives food a rich golden-yellow hue. These traits make saffron a much-sought after ingredient in many foods worldwide. Because of the unusual taste and colouring it adds to foods, saffron is widely used in Arab, Central Asian, European, Indian, Iranian, Moroccan and Cornish cuisines. Confectionaries and liquors also often include saffron.
The word saffron originated from the 12th-century Old French term safran, which derives from the Latin word safranum, which comes from an Arabic word meaning "yellow."
Saffron also has medicinal applications.
Saffron contains more than 150 volatile and aroma-yielding compounds. It also has many nonvolatile active components.
The history of saffron cultivation reaches back more than 3,000 years. Humans cross-pollinated wild specimens called Crocus cartwrightianus by selecting for unusually long stigmas. Eventually, a sterile mutant form of Crocus cartwrightianus, called Crocus sativus, emerged in the late Bronze Age. Experts believe saffron was first documented in a 7th century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal. Since then, documentation of saffron's use over the span of 4,000 years in the treatment of some 90 illnesses has been uncovered. Saffron is mentioned in ancient Chinese medical texts.
Modern medicine has also discovered saffron has anticarcinogenic (cancer-suppressing),anti-mutagenic (mutation-preventing), immunomodulating, and antioxidant-like properties. Saffron crocus is also used in perfumes.
Cleopatra used saffron in her baths so that lovemaking would be more pleasurable. The Egyptians and ancient Greeks also used it in potpourris, mascaras, and divine offerings.
Saffron can be used as a dye.
Saffron is used to give foods a golden color. It was also used as a fabric dye. Saffron-based pigments have been found in 50,000 year-old depictions of prehistoric beasts in the lands we call Iraq today. Saffron threads were woven into textiles ritually offered to divinities by the Ancient Persians in the 10th century B.C. Saffron threads would be scattered across beds and mixed into hot teas as a curative for bouts of melancholy. Non-Persians also feared the Persians' usage of saffron as a drugging agent and aphrodisiac. Buddhist monks in India adopted saffron-coloured robes after the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama's death.
Best growing conditions for Saffron
Saffron plants grow best in strong and direct sunlight and don't do well in shady locations. They do best in a South facing location. Plant Saffron crocuses in June, with corms planted between 7–15 cm deep. Deeper corms produce stronger saffron, but less flowers.
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